by Ciana Stone
* * * * *
Slater lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply. “Are you certain that she didn’t see who attacked her?”
“Positive. She had her weapon on Senna Laserian and was attacked from behind. She never got a look at the assailant.”
“And none of your men saw anything?”
“I’ve already told you. We couldn’t get any closer because of the SWAT team. Dalton had men everywhere. We were taking a major risk being in a close as we were.”
Slater cursed and stabbed his cigarette into the half-filled china cup on the desk. “Your men have turned up nothing?”
“Not a thing. We have the Laserian estate staked out since Senna disappeared and so far nothing. Aside from the housekeeper, no one’s entered or left the estate.”
Slater regarded him thoughtfully before speaking. “Then perhaps your men are as incompetent as their superior.”
“What?” Surprise and outrage were clear in Aaron’s voice.
“Minora Laserian has disappeared.”
“That’s impossible! We’ve been watching the house around the clock. I’ve got men—”
“You’ve got nothing!” Slater bellowed. “And thanks to you I’ve got no leads. I should have known better than to trust you with something of this magnitude.”
“May I remind you that it was me who alerted you to the fact that Van Dorne was visiting her?” Aaron sounded indignant. “Just as it was me who arranged for her to get hooked up with Dalton.”
“For all the good that did us,” Slater replied acidly.
“Oh really?” Aaron was indignant. “Are you forgetting the information Paige provided us with? Without her we would never have been successful in getting her and Chase together. Or do you think you could have done it alone? Maybe you could have just called Chase up and said ’Hi, old buddy. This is the guy who fucked you over, remember? Well, how about doing me a little favor? There’s this broad that has something I need and I figured that since I want to off you I might as well kill two birds with one stone’.”
Slater grunted and lit another cigarette. “Oh, yes. You did indeed arrange the meeting. For all the good it did. Chase has been holding out since the beginning. The only thing getting him and the Laserian bitch together did was give her an experienced operative who could make our job harder.”
A noise in the hall drew both their attention. Slater looked at him suspiciously. “Are you expecting company?”
“No. Unless it’s the cleaning service.”
“If it’s anyone else, the cleaners are going to have a tougher job than usual,” Slater replied as he pulled a gun from inside his jacket. “I’d suggest you don’t move.” Moving so that his back was to the door he pulled his cell phone from his pocket. “We have an intruder.”
* * * * *
Paige froze in place. She could not believe what she had just heard. What was Aaron involved in, and how did Ryan, Chase, and Senna fit in? She started backward, keeping her eyes glued on the door of the study. She was so intent on watching the door that she never sensed the man who came up behind her.
A startled yelp came from her mouth as the man grabbed her. The study door flew open and a tall man with steel-gray hair and cold eyes stepped out into the hall.
“Well, what have we here?” He smirked at Paige.
“Let go of me!” She struggled with the man who held her.
Aaron walked out into the hall behind Slater. “Aaron, tell this thug to let me go!” she shouted.
Aaron regarded her for a few moments then looked at Slater. Slater jerked his head toward the study and the man shoved Paige inside. Within a minute he had her tied securely to a chair in the center of the room.
Slater walked in and stopped in front of her. “Now, Detective Landers, I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
“Fuck you!” she spat at him.
Slater backhanded her with the barrel of his gun. Her cheek split and a line of blood traced across her face. “We can make this as difficult as you like,” Slater spoke as if he were talking to a friend about the current weather conditions. “But please bear in mind that personally I prefer the slow and painful methods.”
Paige’s face paled and she looked at Aaron who was standing in the doorway. “Aaron, please,” she pleaded with him. “I swear to God that whatever you’ve done, I won’t tell anyone. You know you can trust me.”
Slater turned and looked at Aaron. “Well, Mr. Vaughn. Is she telling the truth? Can we trust her?”
After a moment Aaron shook his head. Slater chuckled and turned back to Paige. His hand disappeared into his pocket and when it emerged again there was something in it. “Well, I guess you know what that means, Detective.”
She swallowed and tried to shrink back into the wood of the chair as he leaned over and pressed the release on the switchblade.
* * * * *
Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
Konnor waited until they had finished eating breakfast the next morning before he brought up the subject of the prototype. Senna was sitting on the bed with her back propped against the headboard, wearing a loose T-shirt and jeans. Her hair was still wet from the shower. She seemed more relaxed than she had yesterday but there was still a haunted expression in her eyes. He knew that she hadn’t slept well. Neither had he. The things she had told him kept running through his mind. It was unbelievable but it did provide clues to things that had been happening.
If there were such a device as she described, Slater would be among those trying to see that no one else got their hands on it. It had the potential of altering the balance of world power. It also explained why Shen was so determined to stop the adversary Senna had mentioned, Kitaro. What he could not figure out was how Shen played into the picture.
“Are you about ready to leave?” he asked as he zipped his bag closed.
“I’m waiting on a call,” she replied guardedly.
“A call? From who?”
“Marcus.”
“How would he know to call here?”
He hadn’t noticed the cell phone lying beside her until she pointed to it. “I called him while you were in the shower.”
“Why?”
“We have to meet him. He has a contact in Glendale who can get us onto the base.”
Konnor sat down on the end of the bed. “Senna, are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean, are you sure you can trust Marcus?”
“He’s my father,” she said as if that explained everything.
Against his better judgment he gave in. “Okay, fine. In the meantime, I’d like to ask you—”
The cell phone rang and she snatched it up. “Yes?… Marcus, I was starting to worry… I don’t know, hold on…” She lowered the phone and looked at Konnor. “He said he’ll have a helicopter waiting for us on Papermill Road. That’s just off I-40, outside of Knoxville. He said we take the Hollywood Drive exit and turn left onto Papermill. I don’t know how long it’ll take us the get there.”
Konnor pulled a map from the side pocket of his bag and referred to it. “A little over an hour from where we are now.”
“A little over an hour,” she said into the phone. “Okay, see you then.”
She closed the phone and stood up. “I just have to put on my shoes and I’m ready.”
Konnor didn’t say anything. He carried the bags to the car and started it. Senna got in beside him and buckled up. What had started as a vague uneasiness grew with each passing mile until Konnor was convinced the meeting with Marcus was a mistake. Until they were sure about all the players in this game and what their motives were it was unsafe to trust anyone. He turned to voice his doubts to Senna but once he looked at her he couldn’t find the words. She looked like a lamb being led to slaughter already. He could not add to her fear.
They found the exit and drove until they reached Papermill Road. After going about ten miles Senna leaned forward. “Right there!”
Konnor looked in the direction she was pointing. A large pasture was ahead to the
ir right. Sitting in the middle of the field was a helicopter. Her pulled off the road and turned off the engine. Senna jumped out as he was getting the bags and climbed the pasture fence. By the time he drew near the helicopter she was climbing inside. Climbing in, he tapped the pilot on the shoulder. “What’s our destination?”
“Glendale.”
Konnor nodded and moved into the passenger compartment and sat down beside Senna as the craft rose into the air. She took his hand and held it tightly and he looked down at her. “Since we have a couple of hours would it be okay if I asked you something?”
“What?”
“You said that when Lucas destroyed the prototype he was killed.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to Marcus? Was he with you when you escaped?”
“No, I didn’t see him again until just recently, and since my memories were altered I didn’t remember anything about him.”
“But now that you remember, do you know what happened to him?”
“No, only that he managed to escape and has been working against Slater all these years.”
“And what about you? You said that someone rescued you. Can you tell me about that?”
She thought about it for a moment then nodded. “You remember I told you there was someone hired to be our bodyguard? Well, more precisely, he was hired to make sure Lucas didn’t pull any tricks. His job was to get close to Lucas and me, make us think he was our friend so he could spy for his boss.”
She smiled as she thought about that time. “The only problem was that he was a decent man who disliked what he was doing when he found out the truth. He really did become friends with Lucas. In fact, Lucas trusted him enough to download something vital into his mind. Something that the system had to have to be activated.”
“You mean someone besides you was subjected to the transfer of information?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know?”
“No, not until now.”
“So this man helped you out of friendship for Lucas.”
“Partially.” She looked away, not wanting him to see the expression she knew must be on her face.
“What does that mean?”
“It’s…well…” She cleared her throat. “When he was first assigned to us, I developed a terrible crush on him. You have to understand, I was seventeen, and aside from my father and uncle I had no contact with anyone else. Anyway, I was crazy about him and at first it seemed to bother him and he kept his distance. But as the months wore on he began to talk to me and spend more time around me. I guess he was as lonely as I was. We became close and…and he no longer avoided me. I was still insane about him but I tried to keep it a secret because I was embarrassed. He never acted like he cared anything more for me than as a friend. Until that night. I was in my room and I heard the explosion. Then I saw men outside, coming toward the villa. They broke in and I heard them coming upstairs. He appeared at the window and took me out. We ran and ran until I thought my lungs would burst. I had no idea where we were running to and when we finally did stop I realized we were in the middle of the forest.
“It took us a week to reach a village and during that time I was so afraid I wouldn’t let him out of my sight. Two nights before we reached the village I was lying awake, crying and he tried to comfort me. I was crying in his arms and the next thing I knew I was confessing all my feelings about him. I was horrified at what I had done and just knew he would push me away and hate me. But he didn’t. He…he made love to me and told me that he loved me.
“It was like a strange mixed up dream. Here I was in the middle of a jungle, running for my life, my father and uncle most likely dead. I was petrified with fear and yet at the same time felt like someone had just handed me the world on a platter because he loved me. It was so strange, so unreal. But to make a long story short, when we reached the nearest village, he went for help and never returned.”
“What happened to him?”
She looked away from him and after a moment he asked, “Was he killed?”
Senna could find no better explanation. The man she had fallen in love with then no longer existed. Konnor waited for a moment then asked, “And that’s when someone else found you, right?”
She nodded without looking at him. “Was it the man you and Shen were talking about? Kitaro?”
She shook her head and turned to him. “It was Slater. Slater found me. He took me to Kitaro.”
“Why?”
“To try and retrieve the information in my head.”
“You said you went to hell. What did you mean by that? Did Kitaro tor— Did he hurt you?”
“Hurt me?” She laughed harshly. “Yes, he certainly did.”
Konnor paused for a moment. “Will you tell me?”
She leaned her head against his shoulder for a moment. “This isn’t something you want to hear, Konnor.”
He felt tightness in his chest at her words. Turning in his seat to face her, he took hold of her shoulders. “I have to know.”
She had the most miserable expression on her face, as if the weight of the world rested solely on her shoulders. “No matter what happened, no matter what he did, it won’t change anything,” he promised. “Nothing can change the way I feel about you.”
“So you think,” she argued softly. “You may change your mind.”
“Then at least give me the opportunity to prove you wrong or be proven wrong,” he insisted.
She nodded and turned away. There was no way she could face the memories, no way to talk about it while she was looking at him.
Peering up over the animal pen she looked around frantically. Not only did she not see him, she didn’t see anyone. That seemed odd. All day yesterday the village had been filled with people coming and going. She could hear the sounds from where she waited in the jungle.
When he had not returned by nightfall, the fear returned. She didn’t know what to do—to wait for him or try and find him. She was afraid in the jungle alone, especially at night, but she was more afraid of going out into the village alone. The night hours crept by like a slow-moving river. Each time she would doze off she would jerk awake, sure that something was about to pounce on her. The first light of dawn was the most welcome sight she had ever seen. She decided she had waited long enough. She was tired and hungry and she had to find him.
Despite the peculiarity of the absence of people she was still hesitant to venture out from her hiding place behind the animal pen. She waited for what seemed a very long time and still no one appeared. Thinking that perhaps she would be safe enough she left her refuge and wandered down the dirt street, peering into the buildings. Each was dark and deserted.
“Where did everyone go?” she spoke aloud without thinking.
“Heaven or hell, take your pick,” a voice behind her made her jump and whirl around.
A tall man with craggy features and dark hair dusted with a feathering of gray at the temples stood not five feet behind her. “Who are you?” she squeaked, at the same time backing away from him.
“My name is Bruce. I came here looking for you.”
“Why?” She continued to retreat.
“To take you to your father.”
Senna knew then that whoever the man was, he was definitely not her friend. Her father would never send a stranger for her. She had been warned repeatedly not to have anything to do with anyone except for Lucas, Marcus or her bodyguard. Turning, she ran as fast as she could. She had no idea where she was running to, only that she had to get away.
Coming to a corner, she turned. As she did she cast a look over her shoulder to see if the man was pursuing her and ran headlong into someone. Hands with a grip like a vise grabbed her and before she could scream a cloth came down over her mouth and nose.
She fought with all her strength, trying to tear the noxious rag from her face but her vision was blurring and she was so dizzy she could barely stand. A moment later she felt a suffocating sensation take hold of her. Her b
ody sagged despite her mind’s demands to keep fighting and darkness closed in around her.
When she woke she was in a strange room, lying on a pallet on the floor. As she sat up the cover fell away and she realized she was not dressed. Clutching the cover, she wrapped it around herself and stood.
There was one window, set high in the wall, too high for her to reach. She tried to push a heavy wooden chest in front of the window to stand on but it wouldn’t budge. Looking around for some other avenue of escape, she saw none. The only way out was the door. The problem with that was what lay beyond even if she did find it unlocked. She debated it for a bit then started for the door.
Just as she reached it, it opened. Jumping back, she tripped over the cover she had wrapped around her body and stumbled. Instinctively one hand reached out to break her fall. She scrambled to get to her feet and keep herself covered at the same time. As she turned she found herself face to face with a man she had never seen before.
Obviously of Asian descent, he was slim yet muscular, with long sleek hair pulled back and tied with a thong. His eyes were as black as obsidian and his face appeared as if it were carved from living rock. He was wearing a black silk robe, belted at the waist. Beneath that she could see black pants but no shirt. His hands weren’t visible as they were hidden behind his back. Everything about him made her afraid. It was as if he exuded an aura of evil.
“Who are you?” Her voice would not rise above a choked whisper. “Where am I?”
“You will address me as master,” he replied in heavily accented English.
Senna took a step back. “What do you want?”
“You will tell me everything you know about the project.”
She didn’t understand his demand. “You mean the dig?” she asked.
His eyes narrowed but aside from that he didn’t move a muscle. “You will tell me what I want to know.” He emphasized the word will in a way that made her heart thump rapidly.
“I don’t understand what you want.” She tried to stem the tears that threatened to erupt. “I don’t know anything. My dad’s here on an archaeological dig and I don’t really know what—”
